Watch a replay of the Delta 4 NROL-47 launch

The 375th Delta rocket doubled the size of the Air Force’s “neighborhood watch” program today with the successful launch and deployment of two surveillance satellites into the vast geosynchronous belt of spacecraft around the planet.

An Ariane 5 rocket emerged from the final assembly building at the Guiana Space Center in South America on Monday for the journey across the tropical spaceport to the ELA-3 launch zone, where the 179-foot-tall (54.8-meter) booster will lift off Tuesday with a pair of commercial communications satellites.

Taking advantage of available astronaut time, the International Space Station’s crew will cast off the commercial Orbital ATK Cygnus freighter on Sunday morning nearly six weeks ahead of schedule.